Twitter claims Meta Threads is theft of their trade secrets

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Twitter claims Meta Threads is theft of their trade secrets

8 July 2023

Meta is possibly facing a lawsuit from Twitter, hours after the much hyped launch of Threads, its micro-blogging service, according to Semafor.

In a letter sent to Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter accuses Meta of poaching certain of its employees (presumably those who weren’t laid off), together with “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

But haven’t we been here before, and isn’t there an answer to this? Anyone who saw American film director David Fincher’s 2010 movie The Social Network, will know what I mean. After all, a guy who builds a nice chair doesn’t owe money to everyone who ever has built a chair.

Is that right, or is that right? Time will tell I expect.

Threads by Meta/Facebook has started rolling out

6 July 2023

Threads, the Meta/Facebook micro-blogging/discussion alternative to Twitter was ready to go when I came into the studio this morning. You can find me here.

Threads is pretty simple to set up, especially if you’re already on Instagram (IG), and there’s the option to import your IG profile data, if you don’t want to fill out the same information on your Threads page. You can also auto-follow everyone on your IG following list with a single click, or make individual selections.

From there, you’re pretty much ready to go. Instead of posting a tweet, as you do on Twitter, or a toot if on Mastodon, you post a thread every time you say something. It’s all very new, and early days, and I’m checking in on Threads as I do other things, but it looks like you’ll see a lot of threads from people you don’t directly follow, particularly influencers.

I’m interested to see what other Twitter-like features are, or will be, available, such as lists, and scheduling threads. Isn’t it fun though, something new, and perhaps not so encumbered with baggage, and general bad vibes. And another big one, fingers crossed Meta/Facebook don’t impose too much Meta/Facebook-ness upon us in Threads.

Meta’s Twitter clone, Threads, said to be launching this week

4 July 2023

The much talked about Meta/Facebook Twitter-like micro-blogging application, reportedly called Threads, will be launched later this week, according to Bloomberg.

With well over one billion Instagram users, and approaching three billion Facebook members, Meta’s Twitter clone has tremendous potential traction.

Lee Tilghman, giving up influencing for nine to five work

27 June 2023

Laptop, tablet, camera, some of the gear of an influencer

Image courtesy of Veeka Skaya/Vancity Digital.

What do social media influencers, through with influencing, wanting to try something new, do? They find a nine-to-five corporate job, and act as a consultant for other influencers likewise wishing to exit the industry, of course. That’s the story of former — sort of — American wellness influencer Lee Tilghman. But in 2019, with the role no longer fun, Tilghman decided she wanted out. And what’s the point in staying in something you don’t like, especially when there are other options?

But Tilghman’s story is an intriguing one, given the number of people who would give their right arm, to be in her former position. Who wouldn’t want to be self-employed, on a high income, in return for making a few (sponsored) Instagram posts a day? But that’s simplifying matters somewhat. The posts appearing on an influencer’s social media feed or blog, are the tip of the iceberg. Most the work of an online content producer, even those with assistants, takes place behind the scenes.

In a profile written for the New York Times by Mattie Khan, Tilghman speaks of the delight nine-to-five work is presently bringing her. But is the grass really greener on the other side? One of Tilghman’s new corporate colleagues was mortified when he learned she had given up her role as an influencer. How could she possibly want to be “shackled” by a nine-to-five job? But Tilghman replied by saying “when you’re an influencer, then you have chains on.”

The chains binding influencers are numerous. There’s the need to toe the line — or at least convey that impression — of the brands you represent. While you might be happy to take a brand’s money, for a time anyway, your values may not always align with theirs. There’s also pressure to post frequently to keep followers engaged, lest they drift away. Being in the spotlight constantly can also take a toll over time, to say nothing of the criticism some influencers are subject to.

Today Tilghman counts the relatively low profile nature of nine-to-five work as a bonus, citing the absence of a “comments section at an office job.” That may be so, but how about things like office politics, and KPIs, at a corporate job? There’s a comment section surely as fearsome as any other. But I wonder, once an influencer, always an influencer? Despite having turned her back on the profession, Tilghman still has a profile that would make many a newbie green with envy.

At last count, Tilghman had some two-hundred and forty thousand Instagram followers, a following she’s partly leveraging for her side-hustle, online workshops assisting retiring influencers transition to a new career. And despite the desire for a “boring job”, Tilghman admits to occasionally missing her old work. But is influencing really work? It’s hardly what I am, I call it being a self-publisher, or blogger. But it’s not a job, it’s more of a way of life, and one that’s hard to turn away from.

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Tiktok reading community BookTok prompts reading surge

22 May 2023

Short-form video hosting service TikTok certainly has its nay-sayers. Security analysts believe the app may be compromising the privacy of users, while lawmakers in some countries are considering banning it. But the news isn’t all bad: TikTok appears to be behind a recent surge in book readership, thanks to the app’s reading community, BookTok, according to Kristen McLean of NPD Bookscan:

The romance novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover was the second best-selling Adult Fiction book and sixth best-selling book overall in 2021 — selling more than 770,000 copies last year — despite being a backlist title originally published in 2016, and McLean believes that is “almost exclusively there because of BookTok,” where it was championed.

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BookTok, the best friend of authors and booksellers

25 March 2023

Constance Grady, writing for Vox, on the impact BookTok — the book lovers’ community within video-sharing platform TikTok — has had on book sales in recent years. In terms of the American book market at least, BookTok is almost unrivalled when it comes to selling books. That could come down to the (unrivalled) sincerity of BookTokers, when they talk about their favourite novels:

The main reason BookTok sells so many books, according to most of the BookTokers I talked to, is because it feels authentic and personal. TikTok’s native format of short, punchy videos and culture of casual chattiness combine to create an atmosphere of intense intimacy between content creators and their audience. In the book world, that kind of intimacy and emotional connection is rare. All the caps-locked blog posts in the world can’t match the visceral force of a camera on a real person’s tearstained face as they sob over their favorite books — books that could easily become your favorites, too, if you want to buy them.

Grady also explores the matter of remuneration. Some BookTokers are making a living from their channels, but many are wary about accepting payments from book publishers. Others of course do, but usually declare which of their posts are sponsored, and which are not.

I’m not sure it’s territory I’d like to venture into. As regular readers know, I frequently feature new and recently published books, that are usually Australian. But they are outlines, and seldom reviews, and are written at my own volition, and not at the request of anyone else.

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United States government is considering a full TikTok ban

2 March 2023

Lawmakers in the United States are considering legislation to ban the use of video sharing app TikTok, citing national security concerns:

On Tuesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee was expected to move forward with a bill that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok from all US devices. That’s an estimated 130 million US users. A ban would require passage by the full House and the Senate before the President can sign it into law.

While there are concerns ByteDance, the company who owns TikTok, is sharing user data with the Chinese government, a blanket ban on the app would be a drastic move. I don’t know what the numbers are, but there must be fair few Americans — TikTok influencers for instance — whose livelihoods could be threatened by outlawing TikTok.

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Arrivals offset departures as Twitter exodus seems to pause

18 February 2023

Elon Musk’s arrival at Twitter last October sparked a stampede for the doors, as members worried about where Musk might take the platform. But surprisingly, departures have been matched by arrivals, says Sarah Perez, writing for Techcrunch:

Worldwide mobile app installs are up by 3.7 million in January compared with September 2022. Notably, Twitter installs didn’t decline in November. Instead, it gained new downloads even as some of its users seemingly left for other apps. In other words, any Twitter exodus may have been offset by new Twitter arrivals. Active user data would tell a better story here, but Twitter is no longer a publicly traded company and it’s not clear that Musk is analyzing user data as Twitter had before, which would allow for a direct comparison. But his claims of a burst of November signups could be directionally true, as the month saw higher app installs than October.

There’s also the point that long term Twitter members, despite their disillusionment with the present direction of the platform, have a lot invested in the microblogging service.

Many have spent years, decades possibly, establishing a profile on Twitter, and wouldn’t be in any hurry to leave. Despite the uptake in alternatives, such as Mastodon, there’s still, I think, the hope among some Twitter members that things will eventually return to normal, or some semblance of normal.

Daughter to TikTok: buy Stone Maidens, my dad’s novel

18 February 2023

After spending fourteen years writing a novel — between working and bringing up a family — American lawyer turned writer Lloyd Devereux Richards, published his novel Stone Maidens through Amazon, in 2012.

And then next to nothing happened. Until Richard’s daughter, Marguerite, posted a short clip about the novel on TikTok. Then things started happening. The clip went viral. Sales surged. Stone Maidens sold out after a short stint as the number one on Amazon’s bestseller list, such was interest.

Last week Marguerite posted a 16-second TikTok video that briefly recounted her father’s journey as an author. She explained that her father worked tirelessly on his book while raising three children, and “he’s so happy even though sales aren’t great”. The clip ended with a simple call to arms: “I’d love for him to get some sales.”

It’s not the first time something like this happened after a book concept took off on TikTok. Numerous authors whose manuscripts have been rejected by publishers, have seen their work printed after being embraced by Tiktok users. The Atlas Six, by Olivie Blake, which I mentioned a few days ago, is another example.

Finding a publishing deal through TikTok seems like a lottery to me, but it’s probably worth posting your book idea there, on a “be in it to win it” basis.

#BookTwitter and other Twitter communities fear for future

4 February 2023

For years now book aficionados, publishers, and literary agents, have been convening on #BookTwitter, a community similar to Instagram’s #Bookstagram posse of book lovers.

Like many other Twitter groups though, #BookTwitter’s future hangs in the balance, subject to the fickle whims of the social networking service’s present regime, leaving members concerned they’ll wake up one day and find it gone, along with Twitter itself:

The recent chaos at Twitter has left many communities on the platform wondering — what happens if we wake up tomorrow and the lights are off for good? One such community is “Book Twitter,” made up of writers, editors, agents, booksellers, publishers, literary organizations, and everyone in between. Recently, notable authors like John Green and Sarah MacLean have joined other prominent voices in either deleting or indefinitely locking their accounts, leaving many fearful that a slow bleed of influential players will eventually lead to the community’s demise — if Twitter’s code doesn’t blow up first.

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